In light of the economies of several very socialist countries in Europe collapsing in rather embarrassing flames.  And in light of several other, much larger countries being on the brink, France decided they didn’t like the austerity measures being imposed by their President, Nicolas Sarkozy, and voted him out.  Replacing him with an avowed socialist, Francois Hollande.  Along with Greece also disavowing austerity measures in order to assure bail-outs from Germany and the most stable economies, one has to wonder how much longer the European Union will last.

Me, I personally think it’s already fractured.  If Germany pulls out of Greece and France goes the way the French seem to want, there will be no reason for Germany et al to prop up countries that just want a free ride.

So, what do you think?

Seriously, Houston, you have a problem.

Got this little tidbit from the EEOC this morning at work.

New guidelines could keep employers from digging into someone’s past.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is changing the way companies use criminal background checks to weed out new hires.

The change comes as most employers are increasing their use of background checks to find out what a potential employee has been up to in the past.

The EEOC is concerned that the use of criminal background checks in hiring conditions is having a negative impact on minorities. About 92 percent of companies are using background checks as part of the hiring process to protect themselves.

The EEOC is recommending that employers stop asking about past convictions on job applications unless their prepared to spell out why that conviction is a deal breaker.

They say an arrest without a conviction is not generally not an acceptable reason to deny employment.

The EEOC says when an employer learns that a prospective employee has a prior conviction, they should give the applicant a chance to explain the circumstances before refusing to hire them. They say they’re goal is to make sure people aren’t permanently excluded from the workforce bases on past arrests.

The EEOC says if someone has been arrested, the best thing to do is come clean and be completely honest, because the employer cannot take action if the arrest doesn’t have a direct effect on their job.

The EEOC is hoping these guidelines will help protect the rights of people who are trying to make an honest living.

Here’s the actual source of the story.

Effectively, a person’s criminal past, in the view of Obama’s EEOC, which was never the view of the EEOC in the history of mankind, is that one should not necessarily consider a person’s criminal record an indicator of their honesty.

Yes, you heard that right.  That is the official position of the EEOC: A person, who gets caught stealing stuff, is not necessarily a dishonest person.  They say this because criminal records seem to haunt minorities.

That is INSANE.

All we’ve heard since “change” was chosen in 2008 was how the rich need to pay their fair share.  The perfect example would be to pass the “Buffett Rule” so that really rich guys would pay the same effective tax rate as the lower income peeps.

Well guess who’s paying less than his secretary?

Give up?

How many times is this guy going to get away with just flat out lying to the public? How many people out there are just going to keep smiling while this joker smacks them upside the head?

I really don’t even have the time to document here how often Obama misleads the public.

Much is being made of Vanderbilt Catholic’s decision to not sign Vanderbilt University’s new Non-Discrimination policy.  Basically, it states:

Registered student organizations must be open to all students as members and must permit all members in good standing to seek leadership posts.

They then go to great lengths to assure everyone that gender discrimination is OK. Everything is not.

Vandy Catholic felt assuring Vandy that they would allow anyone into their organization was hypocritical and unethical.  They don’t intend to.  They intend to be an organization where people, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, race, or country of origin could worship Jesus Christ.  Since worshiping a disciple is a choice, I have no problem with that.

There are other organizations that discriminate as well.   In order to be a member of a National Pan-Hellenic Council club you have to be African-American.  That is discriminating purely on the basis of race.  Vandy has no problem with that.  When those organizations sign that non-discrimination clause, they are obviously in violation.  I’m waiting for Vandy to call them out on it.

Hell they even have a “Black Student Alliance“.  In order to be a part of that, you have to be an organization made up of black students.  They got bunches.  I’m really anxious to see if the Black Law Students’ Association signs the pledge not to discriminate against pasty white guys joining.

The problem I have with all this is you have all these eggheads, all over the country, that claim they are not the least bit racist, and then come up with these public displays of how non-racist they are, but only look at one color.

Vandy has no intent to be non-discriminatory in any way.  Blacks are encouraged to discriminate as they see fit.  Genders are encouraged to discriminate as they see fit.  Sexual orientation is allowed to discriminate as they see fit.  Just toss the stupid policy.  Hate crimes are illegal.  Vandy’s silly policy doesn’t change that.

My prevailing point is rather than pretending we’re a grey society where only preferred cultures are allowed to be celebrated, let’s celebrate all cultures equally.  When that happens, you’ll have the closest thing to equality this planet’s ever known.  We’re not only a long way from that point, we seem to be heading in the wrong direction.

Al Franken has a problem:

DEAR REPUBLICANS:

My boss is not my doctor. My health care choices are none of my boss’s business — and none of yours, either.

Seriously — what’s wrong with you guys?

Signed,

Al Franken

&

YOUR NAME + OTHERS HERE

He thinks allowing individual employers to decide how to best recruit their employees is a bad thing.  He thinks that the Democrats, with the muscle of the federal government, should be the only ones who decide what’s best for every single person in the United States.  There are no exceptions, everyone is exactly the same.  A garbage man is exactly the same as a doctor.  Someone who works just to have a job merits the exact same benefits as someone who paid their way through college for four or eight years.

Folks, that’s just communism in its purest form.

Andrew Breitbart died today.  For those of you who don’t know who Breitbart was, just Google the guy.  He was a lightning rod for everyone not ultra-conservative.  Liberals absolutely hated the guy.  Not disliked, but hated him.  They literally foamed at the mouth at the mere mention of his name.  I’m not going to debate the pro’s and con’s of his style, I wasn’t particularly a Breitbart fan myself.  To me, his primary downfall was he fought liberals by using liberal methods.  I like a more conservative debate where you make your point and move on.  That wasn’t Breitbart.  He went jugular.  Now, this is where it gets fun.  On February 10, 2012, he went jugular on Obama again:

He announced he had films of Obama in college giving radical speeches.  That doesn’t surprise me.

Less than three weeks after giving that speech at CPAC, Andrew Breitbart is dead.

SOME people think Obama had something to do with it:

What do you think?

Liberals are rather aghast that some people assert Obama’s policies have driven the price of gas in this country through the roof.  Now that gas is nearing $4.00 a gallon, it’s become an issue to be debated seriously.  And, it is:

And:

Gas was not $1.79 When President Bush Was In Office. Why Conservative Lie?

Totally ignoring the obvious:

Gas WAS much cheaper when Obama took office.  Sure, it spiked before the election, but by September was in a hard decline.  Immediately after Obama took office it rose about 50% to a level and has steadily risen since then.  Now, lots of people will attribute that solely to one of several things.

• Greedy banks.  Everything since 2008 is the fault of greedy banks.
• George W. Bush.  Everything since 2001 is Dubya’s fault.
• Greedy Arabs.
• Rising Chinese demand.
• Global Warming
• Republicans
• US individual greed ( but not theirs ).

I’m going to offer evidence for something completely different.

It’s all Obama’s fault.

It’s very simple, really.  Now, although Obama says we don’t have a right to question his policies when gas prices are hurting us,  I think it’s my duty as a US citizen to do just that.

• Alaska: Obama approved more drilling offshore, which could take years to develop, while simultaneously blocking all efforts to drill on land.  This sounds wonderful to people demanding more domestic production, but can also be used to pander to environmentalists since nothing has actually happened.  Net effect, nothing.  We can’t even get that oil here efficiently because……
• Canada: The Canadians wanted to build a pipeline to get their oil to the US.  It would be huge.  It would deliver an almost endless supply of petroleum.  The Obama administration delayed consideration of it.  So, now they are talking to the Chinese.  Once again, nothing is being done.  They didn’t approve it, they didn’t deny it.  Nothing.  The price of gas skyrocketed immediately following that indecision.
• Libya:  For reasons I still don’t understand Obama chose to meddle in the internal politics of Libya and assured the death of Muammar Gaddafi.  The rebels, in their effort to take out Gaddafi, destroyed most of Libya’s oil production capabilities.  Once Gaddafi was taken out, extremists much more violent and anti-US took over.  We most likely won’t be getting that oil any time soon.  The Chinese, who didn’t meddle in their affairs, have agreements for most of that oil.  Once again, the very bizarre inaction in the post-Gaddafi Libya have resulted in putting the US at a disadvantage.
• Syria:  Basically the same thing that happened in Libya on a small scale is now happening in Syria on a huge scale.  This time, with rebels friendly to the US, Obama has done nothing to stop the carnage while Russia has remained engaged.  Advantage Russia as we have absolutely no bargaining chip whatsoever in that situation once Obama made it clear he would do nothing.
• Egypt:  Obama stood by and did nothing while the Mubarak regime collapsed.  Although not a symbol of honesty, Mubarak did represent stability for a region that desperately needed some.  With his collapse things only got worse as the military has resisted any type of democratic reforms and has sunk ever deeper into the hands of radicals.  Kiss their oil goodbye.
• Gulf Oil Spill: Following the Gulf Oil Spill in 2010, Obama responded by halting all oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.  Very, very, slowly they are now starting to issue new permits.
• Green Energy: Mostly abandoning traditional energy companies, Obama has placed their financial incentive eggs into the green energy basket.  The only problem is that industry has yet to prove itself functional to any degree at all.  The epitome of the entire situation has manifested itself in the Solyndra fiasco.  Obama forced agencies to secure $500,000,000 in loans to Solyndra, and they immediately defaulted.
  
• Although Solyndra defaulted on a half-billion in public financing, they did get their bonuses.
• Iraq: Not able to get a security agreement where the Iraqis wouldn’t prosecute remaining troops, Obama did what he always wanted and pulled out with no assurances whatsoever with the Iraqis.  That oil is now going mostly to the French, Russians, and Chinese.

On and on and on it goes.  So far Obama’s response has been his usual:

Only in politics, the president said, “do they greet bad news so enthusiastically.”

We don’t have a right, and it is unpatriotic, to criticize him over the price of gas.

News flash, it’s his fault, he gets the blame.

Some people are blaming peak oil on the price of gas.  There is some truth in that.  But, we’re not at that point yet.  Production world wide, and domestically, is still increasing.  There are proven reserves in place to enable the US to be self-sufficient in our petroleum needs while we transition to new forms of energy.  Creating an artificial economic crisis over going green will only inhibit that transition since no one will be able to buy the new greener vehicles.  And, even though Obama claims this stuff is the panacea of the future:

The issue is that some subsystems in the Tesla Roadster stay on, draining power from the battery, even if the car itself is “off”. Because there is no protection against the battery pack being drained completely, this can ruin the battery pack. It’s well known in battery pack design that lithium battery cells are permanently damaged if the voltage falls below a low voltage cutoff point, such as would happen if the pack has a constant drain and is not recharged. Tesla has confirmed this can occur, but downplays the bricking risk because they not only warn Roadster owners against this possibility, they also proactively monitor (remotely) the state of charge in all Roadsters to detect ones whose battery pack is dangerously low. One can interpret Tesla’s stance as pushing the responsibility on the owner, just as the owner of a gas car is responsible for regular oil changes necessary to avoid damage to the car.

We are obviously not quite there yet.

So, anyone wanna make the argument it’s NOT Obama’s fault?

That’s the headline.  That’s pretty much the meat of the story.  Timothy Geithner thinks Obama won’t re-appoint him.

I think he’s giving Obama too much credit.

I don’t think Obama could care less whether he stays or goes.  The position is moot under Obama.

Obama has one economic philosophy, tax the rich and give it to the masses.  That’s it.  There’s no trickle-down to explain.  No Keynesian to explain.  Really, no fiscal policy to explain.  Tax the rich, give it to government entities that pay union dues.  That’s it.

Geithner was perfectly suited to do that job.

Jessica Simpson is perfectly suited to do that job. I couldn’t get her elected President, but she could do this.

For that matter, Paris Hilton is probably too experienced.

Hell, even Heidi Montag would do perfectly, she’s really motivated at taking other people’s money.

At least they would have some experience stimulating something.

Bottom line, only an idiot would walk away from a job where they are expected to not do anything tangible.  For being the Treasury Secretary during one of the most stagnant economies in the history of this country, he’ll forever be tagged with being a loser.  He might as well ride this shipwreck as long as he can.

Only problem, he was in San Francisco.

Although he tried to recover the fumble by explaining he got his baseball and football teams mixed up, that doesn’t really help much since the 49ers play the Giants in two days.